Dubnyk shows value of starting goaltender

The game on Tuesday (Oct. 25) between the Minnesota Wild and Boston Bruins at the TD Center in Boston was a clear case of haves vs. have-nots with the ‘have’ Wild coming out on top 5-0.

In other action involving Midwest based teams, the Detroit Red Wings doubled the visiting Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 at Joe Louis Arena, the Columbus Blue Jackets fell in overtime 3-2 to the Los Angeles Kings at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and the Calgary Flames downed the St. Louis Blues 4-1 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

Wild 5 at Bruins 0

The Bruins entered the contest facing a bit of an early season goaltending nightmare as regular starter Tuukka Rask went to the sidelines with an undisclosed injury, joining backup keeper Anton Khudobin sidelined with an upper body injury.

As a result Providence Bruins regulars Malcolm Subban and Zane McIntyre got the call up. On Tuesday, both took a turn in goal as Subban was beaten for three goals on three shots before making way for McIntyre who stopped 15 of 17.

Meanwhile at the other end of the pond, Devan Dubnyk was nothing short of perfect, turning aside all of the 27 shots he faced to grab a shutout win.

Both teams were scoreless through the first 20, but the Wild went to work with four second period goals from Charlie Coyle, Ryan Suter, Jason Zucker and Chris Stewart. The other goal came from Jason Pominville with 4:48 to play in the final period.

The win snapped a brief two-game losing streak for the Wild and boosted its season record to 4-2-1-0 while the Bruins fell back to the .500 mark at 3-3-0-0.

Hurricanes 2 at Red Wings 5

The Red Wings extended its current wining streak to five games after dropping the first two of the regular season as Dylan Larkin scored his first two goals of the season.

At one time, a Calder Cup hopeful in his rookie campaign, Larkin had been somewhat noticeable in his absence from the score sheet in the first half dozen games of the season. But with the team playing possibly its best hockey of the past few seasons, Larkin came to life against the Canes, scoring twice in the first period as the Red Wings blasted out of the gate to a 3-0 lead.

Thomas Vanek also continued his sizzling start with his fourth of the season, opening the scoring just before the five minute mark.

The visitors made things interesting with goals from Jordan Staal and Viktor Rask in the middle period but before the session ended Andreas Athanasiou hit the mesh with his second of the season for the Wings.

The Canes threw all it had at Mrazek down the stretch, outshooting its host 16-6 in the final period but goaltender Petr Mrazek stopped all of them on his way to a 29-save victory. Cam Ward handled 21 of 25 in goal for the Hurricanes.

The Wings boosted its record to 5-2-0-0 with the win, tied for second in points with the Tampa Bay Lightning, behind only the Montreal Canadiens early in the season in the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile the Canes fell to 1-3-2-0 and share the division basement with the Buffalo Sabres.

Blue Jackets 2 at Kings 3 (ot)

After dropping its first two, the Blue Jackets ended a four-game season opening homestand with a pair of wins. On Tuesday, the squad came close to starting a three-game west coast swing with a ‘W’ but Drew Doughty‘s goal with 5:57 to play pulled the home team into a 2-2 draw and Alec Martinez finished the rally with his goal 74 seconds into the overtime segment.

Anze Kopitar fired the other Kings’ goal with 6:20 to play in the opening period but it was the Blue Jackets sandwiching it with an opening goal by Brandon Saad, his first of the season, at the 1:31 mark and then Cam Atkinson restoring the lead for the the Jackets 71 seconds after the Kopitar marker.

Sergei Bobrovsky made his fifth consecutive start for the Blue Jackets, stopping 27 Los Angeles Kings and Peter Budaj turned aside 19 for the Kings.

The Blue Jackets have still collected points in its past three games, sitting at 2-2-1-0 with fewer games played than most of the other NHL teams. The Kings meanwhile are now 3-3-0-0 after dropping its first three of the season. The Kings and Blue Jackets were the final two teams in the league to register points in the standings at the start of the season.

Flames 4 at Blues 1

After winning the finale of its three-game Western Canada trip 6-4 at Calgary on the weekend, the Blues dropped the return match at Scottrade on Tuesday night thanks in part to a 23 save effort by Calgary goaltender Bryan Elliott who faced his former teammates for the first time in St. Louis.

The Blues sent Carter Hutton to the crease, giving Jake Allen a break and Hutton handled 26 of 29 Calgary shots.

The Flames carried a 2-0 lead out of the opening period with goals from Dennis Wideman and Deryk Engelland and Sam Bennett added another, the lone goal of the middle period.

Kevin Shattenkirk connected on a Blues’ powerplay 5:49 into the final period but Johnny Gaudreau‘s second of the year, with 1:11 to play, but this one away for the Flames into an empty St. Louis goal.

The Blues are 4-2-1 with the defeat, but have also dropped three of its past four games while the Flames sit at 3-4-0-1 having picked up four points in the past 24 hours with nice wins at Chicago and St. Louis.

Thursday games

All five Midwest based teams will be off on Wednesday night. On Thursday, the Red Wings will look to extend its five-game steak at the Scottrade Center against the St. Louis Blues, the Wild wraps up a four-game (1-1-1) road trip at the Keybank Center in Buffalo against the Buffalo Sabres and the Blue Jackets will move on to play the San Jose Sharks at the SAP Center.